Episode 109: Canon Rangefinders Part Deux

Way back in the early days of the Camerosity Podcast, we did a show with Canon historian and author Peter Kitchingman, and recently as the gang looked back at what topics were worth revisiting we decided to come back to Canon rangefinders.  But what expert would we get this time?  As it turned out, Peter was available and willing to come back so we decided to retread this bountiful topic and deliver a "Part Deux" to Canon rangefinders.

Joining Peter and the regular hosts were Greg Harp, another excellent resource for these cameras who has a great deal of knowledge, plus listeners A.J. Gentile, Ben Ryerson, Ira Cohen, Jeremy Scott, Joan, John Roberts, Norris Liu, William Smith, and Will Pinkham.

We start off with some brief history and then get into some of the earliest Canon rangefinders like the original Canon and the slightly later Canon J and JII.  Moving onto the historically significant S, SII, and IIBs and eventually covering the II, III, and IV series.  We move along to the back loaders like the V, VI, P, and 7 series, covering various lenses, including the 0.95 Dream lens, a very rare original Canon mount wide angle lens, and others.  Greg and Peter even share a bit of knowledge about Canon's X-Ray cameras which they made during and after the war.

Although a majority of you probably wanted to hear the most about the interchangeable lens models, we give some love to the fixed lens Canonet models like the trigger wind Canonet, the Canonet QL17 G-III, and even some of the more economically priced models.

Unusual to a Camerosity episode, we largely stayed on topic for this only only slightly veering into one Argus lens (blame Mike for that), but we answer a bunch of questions such as why is having different magnification ratios for the rangefinder useful, why is having separate viewfinder and rangefinder windows better, and what role did Nippon Kogaku play in Canon's history.

As always, the topics we discuss on the Camerosity Podcast are influenced by you!  Please don’t feel like you have to be an expert on a specific type of camera, or have the level of knowledge on par with other people on the show.  We LOVE people who are into shooting or collecting cameras, no matter how long you’ve been doing it, so please don’t consider your knowledge level to be a prerequisite for joining!

The guys and I rarely know where each episode is going to go until it happens, so if you’d like to join us on a future episode, be sure to look out for our show announcements on our Camerosity Podcast Facebook page, the Camerosity Discord server, and right here on mikeeckman.com. We usually record every other Monday and announcements, along with the Zoom link are typically shared 2-3 days in advance.

Our next episode will be number 110, and we listened to you all for a topic and you chose 110 "Pocket Instamatic" cameras.  This means the Pentax and Minolta 110 SLRs will definitely make an appearance, but in the event we can't fill a whole episode about 110 cameras, we are opening up the discussion to all 16mm subminiature cameras.  We will record Episode 110 on Monday, June 8th at 7pm Central Daylight Time, 8pm Eastern Daylight Time, and 6pm Canada Saskatchewan Time.  For more time zones, please consult the World Time Buddy calculator and plug in your time.  Make sure you set your calendars and look out for the show announcement at the usual locations and be prepared to join us!

In This Episode

• Peter Kitchingman is Back / Peter Still has Hundreds of Copies of His Book for Sale
• A Show Listener Recently Picked up a Canon JII and Asked What it Was
• The Origins of Canon's Early Models / Rangefinder Less Canon J
• Nippon Kogaku's Role with the Early Canon Cameras / Serial Numbers are Difficult to Track
• Canon J-Mount vs Leica Thread Mount (24 tpi vs 26 tpi) / The Canon SII Was the First LTM Canon
• Canon Remained Profitable During the War Making X-Ray Cameras
• Mike Thinks the Rotating Prism Was One of Canon's Best Features
• Which Canon is Good for a First Time Canon Rangefinder Owner?
• Quick Ways to Differentiate a Canon II, III, and IV / Canon IV Sb
• The Never Ending Questions About the EP Mark
• Some Canon Sleeper Lenses / Canon Often Launched Cameras with Wide-Angle Options
• The Canon V-Series / Lever Wind Models and the VT Trigger Wind Models
• Japanese Summilix 50mm f/1.4 Canon Lens / Trigger Film Advances
• CR Skinner and the Canon 1950 Model / Origin of the Name "Dream Lens"
• Canon 7 / Canon f/0.95 Lens and its Use in Hollywood / Stanley Kubrick's f/0.7 Zeiss Planar Lens
• Differences Between the Canon 7s and 7sZ / Lenses with Hoods Which Block the Viewfinder
• Why Do Some Lenses Inexplicably Skyrocket in Value? / Influencers
• The Helios-44 is Influencer Proof / Getting Stuff from Ukraine
• Canon Made Some Decent Fixed Lens Rangefinders Too / Trigger Winds
• Canonet 19 / Canonet QL17 GIII / Canonet QL25 and 28 Models
• Canon Cameras at the Leitz Auction / Repainted Black Cameras
• Tips on Identifying a Repainted Camera vs an Original Painted Camera
• What Are the Advantages of Having Multiple Magnification Ratios in a Rangefinder?
• Auxiliary Viewfinders / Canon V and VIs Have Built in Automatic Parallax for Viewfinders
• Experiences with Canon or Konishiroku Collapsible 50/3.5 LTM Lenses
• Keeping a Record of Camera Provenance and History

Links

The Camerosity Podcast is now on Discord! Join Anthony, Paul, Theo, Stephen, and Mike on our very own Discord Server. Share your GAS and photography with other listeners in the Lounge or in our dedicated forums. If you have questions for myself or the other guys, we have an “Ask the Hosts” section as well where you can get your question answered on a future show! Check it out! https://discord.gg/PZVN2VBJvm.

If you would like to offer feedback or contact us with questions or ideas for future episodes, please contact us in the Comments Section below, our Camerosity Facebook Group, Instagram page, or Discord server.

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Camerosity Podcast Episode 18 w/ Peter Kitchingman - https://camerosity.podbean.com/e/episode-18-canon-rangefinders-with-peter-kitchingman/

If you would like to order Peter Kitchingman's book, email him at peterkcrf@iinet.net.au.

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